Full text of "Indians at work"

INDIANS

AT WORK

February 19 41

PEOPLE, PICTURES and PREDICTIONS OF THINGS TO COME

BY FLOYD W. LAROUCHE

In Charge of Information and Publications

On the front cover of this issue a young Indian of the Red Lake Chippewa
Band, pauses for a moment in his harvesting operations, to discuss his work with an
Indian Service farm agent. And in that moment, young Gordon Soramers snapped the pic-
ture. Previously, Sommers had walked over a vast field of clover, making photographs
of the Indians at work on the Red Lake Agricultural Folk School farm in Beltrami Coun-
ty, Minnesota. He arrived, slightly out of breath, just in time to catch this brief
interview.

A young Indian at the controls of the tractor combine is talking to Farm
Agent Clarence W. Ringey of the Red Lake Agency.

Behind these harvesting operations is a story of an effort by the Indians
to make effective use of agricultural lands, at the edge of a wilderness country, and
efforts by the Government to teach and encourage the Red Lake Chippewa Indians to un-
derstand other means of livelihood besides hunting, fishing and forestry.

This is one of the vast wilderness areas of northern United States. A few
miles from these farm fields moose, bear and coyotes roam the woods in primitive pro-
fusion. Fish thrive and multiply in the lakes and streams, far from the populous cen-
ters of industry and commerce. The Indians are slowly learning some of the skills
they will eventually need to conform to this outside world and yet retain the great
native skills of their woodland ancestors.

This is a story "Indians At Work" will publish soon; a story of a people in
transition. On a brief visit I was struck by the potentialities of a small minority
group that has guarded and preserved its vast resources in a world that has only sel-
dom recognized the rights of weaker people.

Another type of Chippewa picture by Sommers on page 26, bears on the impor-
tant wild rice industry. At an Indian rice camp near Little Rice Lake, a Chippewa wo-
man prepares the rice for winnowing. She tosses rice into the air where the wind blows
away the chaff.

On page L4 the Mille Lacs Chippewas are shown clearing their land to build
homes. Each eligible family has two acres, one for a garden and one for a home.

Sommers also got the picture of the three little Chippewa girls practicing
their reading, while their parents work, at Little Rice Lake.

Dr. Gordon Macgregor and Mrs. Macgregor are represented in this issue. Dr.
Macgregor, anthropologist in the Indian Service Education Division, wrote the review on
page 38, of a book by Ralph Linton. Mrs. Macgregor made the picture on page 3.

The obituary material and the picture of the Hopi leader Kutke were sub-
mitted by Seth Wilson, Superintendent of the Hopi Agency. The picture of Pablo Abeita
came from the family by way of the United Pueblos Agency.

NOTE TO EDITORS'

Ttxt in this magazine is aval lab I* for reprinting as
desired. Pictures will be supplied to the extent of
their availability-

INDIANS AT WORK

In This Issue FEBRUARY 1941

Notes On Contributors F.W.L Inside Front Cover

Mexican And U. S. Representatives Sign Treaty

For Inter-American Indian Institute Frontispiece

Editorial John Collier 1

The Story of Education in Mexico Heberto M. Sein 1

Puye Ruins, New Mexico

(Photo by Frances Cook Macgregor) 3

Navajo Mother And Child

(Photo by Frank Werner) U

Little Navajo Boy With His Horse

(Photo by Werner) 7

Governor Juan Abeita And His Wife, Isleta

Pueblo, N. M. (Photo by Werner) 9

Native American Indian Arts Hold Spotlight

In New York As Crowds See Museum Exhibit 11

Thirty Million Indians Vital To Western Sol-
idarity Secretary Ickes Says In Annual Report 13

Indian Mural Painting At Pine Ridge, S„ D.

(Photo by Vachon) 18

North Carolina Pays For Parkway Lands 20

Hand-Carved Eskimo Craft

' (Photo by Ray Dame ) , 21

In Council Halls 22

Roberta Campbell Lawson Dies At Her Tulsa Home 24.

Death Of Two Leaders Is Real Loss To Pueblos 25

Minnesota Chippewa Woman Prepares Wild Rice

(Photo by Gordon Sommers ) 26

Chairman Of Senate Indian Committee Discusses

Prohibition ; Visits Klamath 27

Eastern Cherokees Contribute To Nation's

Defense 27

Indians In The News 28

Book Reviews: "Acculturation in Seven American Indian Tribes" 30

"Indians Of Yesterday" 31

"Indians of the United States" 33

The Younger Generation Comes Through Michael Harrison 34

Indian Service Publications And Other Items

of Information Inside Back Cover

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTER I0R - OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS -WASHINGTON, O.C,

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COOPERATION AMONG THE AMERICAS Takes Another Step Forward As
Josephus Daniels, United States Ambassador To Mexico, On November 29, 1940,
Signs The Convention Creating The Inter-American Indian Institute, While
Vice-President Henry A. Wallace And Officials Of The Mexican Government Look
On. In Addition To The United dtates And Mexico, The Republics Of Costa
Rica, Cuba, Honduras, And El Salvador Have Signed The Document Which Pro-
vides For Periodical Meetings Of The Inter-American Indian Institute And Of
National Indian Institutes, As Well As For Scientific Investigations And
Reports On Indian Matters In All The Americas, Study And Expansion Of Train-
ing For Indian Service Personnel, And Numerous Publications. The Convention
Is Awaiting Ratification By The United States Senate.

AT WORK

A News Sheet For INDIANS and me INDIAN SERVICE

VOLUME VIII FEBRUARY 1941 NUMBER 6

In a conversation at Patzcuaro, at the First Inter-American Con-
ference on Indian Life last April, I received from Professor Heberto M.
Sein (one of Mexico's workers) an account of Indian education which was
thrilling to hear. I urged Professor Sein to write down what he had uttered,
and in just the way he had spoken it. This he has done.

And in place of an editorial, I quote in this "Indians At Work"
the first nine pages of the sixty pages of Professor Sein's manuscript.
These nine pages deal with pre-Columbian Indian education in Mexico. The
whole record, in its sweep down the thousand years' time and into the pres-
ent and future, is moving, sad, sweet and incomparable.

Schools Among The Cornfields

"Northward and westward from Central America stretches this rugged
land up to the Rio Bravo. Its eastern shores are washed by the waves of the
two seas: the Caribbean where the peninsula of the Mayas is the first Mex-
ican land to greet the rising sun, and the inward curving Sea or Gulf of
Mexico. Her mountainous western coast drops abruptly into the blue waters
of Balboa's Pacifico.

"Hers is not a vague, formless expanse of land. Her geographic
shape is a symbolic paradox of the country. Cornucopia] Horn of abundance]
Plenty of land, yet for long a landless people; plenty of silver, yet penni-
less peasants; plenty of ports, yet a trickling trade; plenty of natural re-
sources, but in foreign hands; plenty of work to be done, yet much musing in
the sun. Land of the Cornucopia! Plenty of misery, plenty of unrest, plen-

ty of problems, plenty of plans, plenty of hopes, aspirations and dreams,
plenty of thirst for justice and for the coming of a new day]

"On this land live the people. On the high plateau widening and
sinking northward from the snowy peaks of Popocatepetl and Ixtlacihuatl
to the burning sands of Chihuahua's plains live the people. In the narrow
village, near torrential streams, in the jungles of the Isthmus, on the
arid maguey mesas live the people. And the story of their schoolless cen-
turies, and the story of their hopeful schools in this new hour is a story
for the thoughtful of America.

"Back in the days of the early Americans, back in the days of the
Toltecs and Zapotecs, Mayas and Aztecs, education flourished among the peo-
ple. Their education - like all education - was both a fruitage and an
instrument of their civilization. For here in the New World loneliness
they developed a civilization that made Peru, Yucatan and Tenochtitlan three
islands of culture in the continental wideness of Indian life.

Time Is Life

"In the land of the Mayab, or Land of the Pheasant and the Deer,
rose brilliant cities like Chichen-Itza, Uxraal and many others of which the
land conserves only the ruins and history not even the names. Ruins of
palaces, temples and monuments - witnesses to a great civilization. In-
scriptions and figures that withstood the weathering of the ages and the
all-embracing exuberance of the jungle indicate the advanced accomplish-
ments of the Mayas in astronomy. Time is life - said the descendants of
Maya chieftain Kukulcan. The measuring of time, first sign of civilization,
essential to a regularized agriculture and to the stability of communal
institutions, was one of their crowning achievements. The fame of Chichen-
Itza, with its court of a thousand columns, ruins of palaces, pyramids and
towers, has spread to all the world.

"Maya books on medicine, astronomy, chronology, geology and the-
ology! Maya books of native paper, folded into narrow pages like the books
of the Siamese. Books that rustled, as they opened and closed like an ac-
cordion! Father Landa, the historian of the invasion of Yucatan, saw them,
piled them, burned them. When only their ashes were left, he made the his-
torical note: 'The Maya priests wrote books about their various sciences
and imparted their knowledge to those whom they considered worthy of en-
lightenment ... We found a great number of their books, but because there
was nothing in them that had not some superstition or falsehood of the
Devil, we burned them all, at which the natives were marvelously sorry and
distressed. '

"Among the Aztec people who inhabited the lands around Lake Tex-
coco and Lake Xochimilco there flourished a civilization destined to awak-
en the admiration of Europeans. The Aztec Calendar or Stone of the Sun,
one of the marvels of the world, is the effort of native American intelli-

Indians lived in these cliffs thousands of years ago. Pueblo Indians
now supplement their income by guiding tourists through the cliff
dwellings. Puye' Ruins National Monument is located on lands of the
Santa Clara Pueblo; about 35 miles from Santa Fe, N. M.

. mm

gence to fix the periodicity of the laws of nature. There is knowledge of
the Aztecs' investigation and use of 1,200 plants, reptiles, fishes, in-
sects and minerals; each with its correct name in the Nahuatl language.
Education among them was closely linked to life and the social regime.
Three institutions shared in the work: the family, the Calmecac, the Tel-
pochcalli.

"The Aztec father was in charge of raising his boy, better said,
his boys; while the Aztec mother brought up her girls. They bathed them
in cold water, and, lightly covered, put them to bed on a mat of reeds on
the earthen floor of their adobe home. Thus they began early to harden
them that they might grow to be robust, healthy men and women, and to sup-
port courageously the hardships of their life. The children of the wealthy
too were brought up in this fashion. Their fathers wanted them to become
mighty men of battle. 'Tiger-warriors and Eagle-warriors.'

"When the boy was four, the father would train him to carry water
in small jars; when five to carry small bundles, now on his back, now on
his shoulders, that from early boyhood he might learn the Indian art of
rhythmic trotting with a load for long distances with relatively little
fatigue - a labor that would be incumbent on him for all the days of his
life. For in the Aztec world where horses, mules, oxen, sheep, and burros
were creatures unknown, men and women, little boys and little girls, all
knew how to carry their burdens with grace - their pottery, blankets, bas-
kets, fruits, corn, and glossy chile peppers over the mountain ranges to
near and distant market places.

When A Boy Was Lazy

"When the boy was seven, the father would begin to teach him his
own trade or craft, while the learning of other tasks continued; repairing
fishing nets, planting corn, making adobes, poling a boat over the sunlit
waters of the lake. When a boy was lazy, his thighs and arms would be
pricked with the slender thorns of the maguey leaves. This was to teach
him to keep alert, and also to endure suffering without complaint. At thir-
teen he was considered a little man. He could go to the hills to trap birds
and rabbits, to the forests for wood, to the marshes for reeds. Finally,
at fourteen he would devote most of his time to becoming skilled in the
trade or craft of his father.

"When her little daughter was four, the mother would teach her
little brown hands to gin cotton; at five these little brown hands would
learn to spin. At twelve the girl had already learned to do the numerous
household tasks. She began her housekeeping early even before dawn. To
teach her this, the mother would often wake her at night to sweep the co-art
around the house by starlight. The girls went to bed dressed due to their
feelings of decorum and also to be ready to rise at mother's call.

"At thirteen the girls had obtained skill in all the household
tasks: spinning cotton thread, and maguey fiber thread; to soak the corn
overnight in lime water; to grind the bursting kernels into dough, to pat
and bake the family 'tortillas 1 on the smooth, clay 'comal; to cook dishes
the men liked, and dishes for weddings and traditional feast days; to make
needles from maguey thorns, and to squat by the doorway mending the clothes.
When the girl reached fourteen, the mother taught her the Indian art of
weaving cotton cloth and cotton blankets on the primitive looms that de-
scendants of the Aztecs still use in the sleepy villages of Indian Mexico.

"By the age of fifteen, this family education had truly prepared
youth among the Aztecs to live their lives usefully, and to use their phys-
ical, intellectual, and moral powers harmoniously. They had learned to
work by working, and to plan their day's work and the year's work by shar-
ing in the planning with their parents.

Gifts In School For All

"At this age began the public education of youth. Not with equal-
ity of opportunity for all youth. For the sons of the nobles who at birth
had been consecrated to Quetzalcoatl would enter the Calmecac , which means
'row of houses. ' The priests, however, chose promising boys from all classes.
At the consecration ceremony the priests had accepted the child on behalf
of the god Quetzalcoatl, but the child was to remain at home until the en-
trance age of fifteen. At the Calmecac boys would be trained for priest-
hood. Life in this institution was sober, frugal and laborious. Emphasis
was laid on the purification of character and the soul through penitence
and prayer. The students dressed in utter simplicity: a girdle ana a flow-
ing white tunic. For a bed each had a petate, the mat of woven reeds; for
food, the frugal rations of the Calmecac . For whenever parents sent gifts
of food, these were distributed among all. They developed astonishing dex-
terity in picture writing, and in reading hieroglyphics. They came to un-
derstand the pictorial, historical documents of the Aztec confederacy of
tribes. They also learned to utilize the highly developed astronomical
knowledge of the priests. Before sunrise, the youthful figures in their
white tunics would be busy sweeping, cleaning, and preparing for sunrise
services to the airy deity, Quetzalcoatl .

"The boys that had been consecrated to Tezcatlipoca entered at
fifteen the Telpochcalli , or 'house for youth. ' Here they trained to be-
come warriors. They learned the use of the bow and arrow, the wooden
shield, and other simple arms. They learned to endure pain, fatigue, hun-
ger, and thirst. In time they went out as aides in warring expeditions
to prove their prowess in battle. Their deeds were observed by the war-
riors who reprimanded their weakness and encouraged their valor. On the
return to the Telpochcalli to train for higher tests, a prize awaited the
student who had performed a distinguished service in the campaign.

Eleven-year-old Nav-
ajo boy, son of Juan
Milford, who lives
on the huge Navajo
Reservation in the
Southwest. Some Nav-
ajo children ride
horses to the Federal
day schools.

.-T- ■ :: ~~... .

"For all men certain virtues of character were considered ne-
cessary to full manhood. There was the virtue of patience, steady labor,
but no rush. No rush to consume natural resources of lakes, fields and
forests. Take from nature moderately, sufficient unto your needs. A small
fire burns up less wood, and lets you sit nearer to its warmth. No rush
to cram the hours of the day with fretful agitation. To labor steadily,
serenely, yes; and to be able to watch and wait. That was the virtue of
patience.

' Not By Much Early Rising Does The Sun Come Up Any Earlier 1

"This virtue has come down through the generations. The Mexican
Indian is still wealthy in patience. While the Yankees north of his coun-
try say: 'Early to bed, and early to rise; makes a man healthy, wealthy,
and wise'; his Indian patience is reflected in the current saying: ' No
por mucho madrugar amanece mas temprano . ' ( 'Not by much early rising does
the sun come up any earlier.')

"Then, there was the virtue of endurance of pain without register-
ing suffering. The mastered Indian body took punishment and torture, while
the face betrayed no sign of suffering. When the Spaniards were burning the
feet of Cuauhtemoc and his companion to release the secret of the hidden
treasure, his companion sighed: 'Is not the fire of the invaders just a
little too hot?' Cuauhtemoc grinned: 'Think you that I am resting on a
bed of roses?' He endured the burning,- was made lame for the rest of his
days, but released not the secret nor any cry of pain. To this day, much
as you may look at an Indian's face, you can never tell what he is really
thinking. It still takes an Indian to fully understand an Indian. Here-
in lies a secret of success for educational efforts among the Indians.

"Thus the hardy training, and the vigorous family education taught
youth to strive after these virtues, to reverence and fear the gods, love
and respect all parents, hold an almost religious veneration for mother-
hood, to be courteous to the aged, the poor; to fulfill duty and abhor vice.
To learn soon that the way to remain free from immorality is to be con-
tinually occupied in the arts and crafts. To love truth, and to practice
obedience to reason and to justice. Above Huitzilopochtli , God of War,
above Tonatiuh , the sun, above Meztli , the moon, above Tezcatlipoca , the
'mirror-smoke', above Quetzalcoatl , the plumed serpent-deity of goodness,
agriculture, and beauty, he believed in the unity of God - a God-Cause of
all things. 1 Ometeuhtli J Ometeuhtli i Learn his name.' r whispered the In-
dian fathers to Aztec youth when, stretched on the mats of reeds inside the
adobe home, they could hear the breathing of the earth in the silence of
the night. " From " The Story of Education in Mexico ", by Heberto M. Sein.

Cr Commissioner of Indian Affairs

The 19^0 Governor Of Isleta Pueblo . N. M. , Juan Andres Abe it a . With His Wife

11
Native American Indian Arts Hold The Spotlight
In New York As Crowds See Museum Exhibit

The contribution of the Indian to the modern American way of life
is the subject of a comprehensive exhibit devoted to fashions, jewelry and
interior furnishings against a background of living Indian traditions and
prehistoric art, which opened to the public on January 22 at The Museum of
Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York City, under the joint sponsorship
of the Museum and the United States Department of the Interior. After about
two months in New York the exhibit will be taken on a tour of several large
cities.

Instead of drawing on the styles or cultures of foreign countries,
some of which are no longer available as sources, this exhibit is of pure
American origin and development. Lending a touch of native color at the ex-
hibit and at the invitational preview of the evening of January 21, four
American Indians were amongst the guests of honor. The Indians, all of whom
have contributed to the exhibit in some way are: Ambrose Roan Horse, Navajo
silversmith; Fred Kabotie, Hopi painter; and Nellie Buffalo Chief and Elsie
Bonser, Sioux weavers.

Mrs . Roosevelt Praises Indian Artistry

The exhibit was prepared for the Museum by the Indian Arts and
Crafts Board, assisted by the Office of Indian Affairs, both agencies of
the Department of the Interior.

On January 25, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, interested and active
patroness of native Indian arts and crafts, was scheduled to attend the
exhibit. Mrs. Roosevelt, in commenting on the work displayed at the Museum,
said:

"In appraising the Indian's past and present achievements, we
realize not only that his heritage constitutes part of the artistic and
spiritual wealth of this country, but also that the Indian people of to-
day have a contribution to make toward the America of the future.

"In dealing with Indian art of the United States, we find that
its sources reach far beyond our borders, both to the north and to the
south. Hemispheric interchange of ideas is as old as man on this continent.
Long before Columbus, tribes now settled in Arizona brought traditions to
this country that were formed in Alaska and Canada; Indian traders from the
foot of the Rocky Mountains exchanged goods and ideas with the great civili-
zations two thousand miles south of the Rio Grande. Related thoughts and
forms that are truly of America are found from the Andes to the Mississippi
Valley.

"We acknowledge here a cultural debt not only to the Indians of
the United States but to the Indians of both Americas."

Mrs. Roosevelt's comment appeared as a foreword to a profusely-
illustrated book entitled, "Indian Art of the United States", prepared by-
Frederic H. Douglas, Curator of Indian Art of the Denver Art Museum, and
Rene d'Harnoncourt, General Manager of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board
and published by the Museum of Modern Art.

The purpose of the exhibition is to create a new interest in In-
dian arts and crafts, to help develop the marketing of Indian products, to
disprove the mistaken idea that this country has no native art, and to dem-
onstrate that Indian arts and crafts can have a place in modern fashions
and decoration and that the products of contemporary Indian artists are
both useful and beautiful. All of this is a part of the Government's pres-
ent-day program of assisting the Indian toward self-support and toward cul-
tural as well as economic freedom.

Board Helps Indian Producers

On the recommendation of Secretary Ickes and John Collier, Com-
missioner of Indian Affairs, the Indian Arts and Crafts Board was created
by Act of Congress in August 1935, and began to function in July 1936.
Its purpose is to promote the welfare of the Indian wards of the United
States Government through the development of Indian arts and crafts and
the expansion of markets for their products. First Assistant Secretary
of the Interior E. K. Burlew is a member of the Board, of which Mr. Col-
lier is Chairman. Other members are Dr. A. V. Kidder, Director of His-
torical Research, Carnegie Institute, Washington; Lorenzo Hubbell, Oraibi,
Arizona: and James W. Young, Washington, D. C. Mr. d'Harnoncourt is Gen-
eral Manager of the Board and is in charge of the exhibit, assisted by Mr.
Douglas and by Henry Klumb, architect.

Exhibit Includes Art Of 15.000 Years Ago

The exhibition, including loans from museums in the United States
and Canada, as well as from private collections, traces the development
of Indian art from prehistoric times to the present. One floor of the Mu-
seum is devoted to "Prehistoric Art", one to "The Living Traditions", and
a third to "Indian Art in Modern Living." Articles shown range from two
fragmentary exhibits said to be 15,000 years old, to vivid rugs and wear-
able modern jewelry completed within recent months on Indian reservations.
Stone and wood sculpture, pottery, metalwork, weaving, jewelry, painting
and mosaic work are included.

The exhibits are intended to provide a comprehensive picture of
Indian arts themselves, rather than to show the forms of dress and design
they may inspire. A small collection of women's fashions show Indian ma-
terials and products as they fit into modern apparel. A basic idea is to
enable the Indian to contribute to present-day dress and furnishings and
to permit the Indian to profit from these contributions.

1 V v / -Y 1

Reindeer for 20,000 Eskimos in Alaska

TA/V// Million Indians Are Vital To Western Solidarity
So era tar/ lakes Says In Annual Report To President

Indians of the United States, closely related in culture, blood
and tradition to the 30,000,000 Indians of Latin America, have become a
vital factor in the program of hemisphere solidarity, Secretary of the Inte-
rior Harold L. Ickes stated in that section of his Annual Report to the
President covering the Office of Indian Affairs, which has just been re-
leased to the public.

The changed attitude and policy of the United States Government
toward its native Indian minority in recent years has done much to improve
our relations with the predominantly Indian countries to the south of us,
and the increasing realization of the mutuality of Indian problems has fur-
ther cemented these hemisphere relationships, the Secretary stated.

First American Congress On Indians

A notable achievement in behalf of Indians of the Americas oc-
curred in April, 194-0, when, for the first time, representative Indians,
Indian workers, and diplomatic representatives from all the countries of
the Americas came together at Patzcuaro, Mexico, to confer about one of
the major interests wnich the Americas have in common - the Indian popula-

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Seven Years Of Progress In Conserving And Utilizing Indian Lands.

tions. Declarations were enacted unanimously to the effect that the local
democracies of the Indians should be regarded as fundamental within the
polity, economy and cultural effort of all the nations of the West.

This impressive progress of this minority race in the United
States, which is so often pictured as a dwindling and negligible portion of
our population, has already become an important factor in hemisphere rela-
tions.

Actually the Indians of this country are far from being members
of a "vanishing race", for they are increasing much faster than the general
population, the report reveals. They are advancing rapidly too in matters
of self-government, self-support, in cultural development and in the con-
servation of important natural resources.

The most dramatic and nationally important phase of Indian ad-
vancement during the past 7 years has been the Indians' own efforts, at con-
serving their lands. It was no accident that the Indians turned over to
the white man a continent unexploited and uneroded. Conservation is basic
in Indian cultures. Always the unity of the Indian with his land was a
unity of use, of conservative use, of planned use.

No groups in the country at present are making greater voluntary
sacrifices to save their lands than are the Navajos, many of the Pueblos,
the Hopis, and others. Tribes that are most archaic in their social forms,
such as that of the Acoma Pueblo, have adopted modern technologies of land
conservation, range management, animal husbandry and marketing.

The high degree of protection given Indian forests and range lands
could not have been achieved without the cooperation of the Civilian Con-
servation Corps. In the control of erosion and the protection of forests
and range against fire, flood and insect damage, the work of the Indian
Division of the CCC has been of exceptional value for the nation as well as
the Indians.

New Skills Through CCC Work

A most important by-product of the conservation and resource pro-
tection work of the Indian CCC is the training received by thousands of
young Indians. Since the beginning of the program in 193A, more than 75,000
individual Indians have worked on Indian CCC projects and have acquired ex-
perience in the construction of bridges, trenches, truck trails, barbed-
wire fences and communication systems. Within the ranks of the Indian CCC
there are now available several thousand trained men for service in or be-
hind the front lines of a mechanized force for national defense.

Conservation activities have been too numerous and too diversified
to make possible an itemization of recent developments. In Alaska the Es-
kimos are dependent on their reindeer for food and clothing. After careful
and exhaustive studies by the Government, provision was made to purchase
all of the non-native owned reindeer and to turn these over to the natives,
where under Federal guidance proper conservation measures could be effected
and pursued.

Navajo Give Up Horses To Save Soil

On the semi-arid stretches of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona,
New Mexico and Utah a vital part of the program of conservation has been
the necessity to make clear to Indians the intricacies and the importance
of modern soil conservation methods. To accomplish this, in part, a new
Navajo alphabet has been developed and put into use with helpful results
already manifested. Another phase was a huge round-up of wild horses under-
taken as a means of disposing of these economically unproductive animals.
To the Navajo, the horse is a symbol of prestige, and the fact that he con-

sented to part with his horses indicates the extent to which the need for
soil-saving has become apparent.

Good health being one of the prime essentials of any program of
national defense, the rapid advancement of Indian health work, and the re-
cently accomplished results of the Indian Service program of research and
treatment, constitute an important contribution to the national cause.
Striking success in the treatment of tuberculosis and trachoma has been
recorded within the past year.

During the last 7 years the Indians have increased in number at
a more rapid rate than any other segment of the population. This is un-
doubtedly due to efforts to help them achieve economic rehabilitation, to
wipe out the dread scourges of trachoma, tuberculosis and other diseases,
and to renew the spirit to live through restoring their confidence, pres-
tige and self-government. This is furthered through intelligent programs
of community services and better law and order. A death rate of 27 per
thousand in 1928 has fallen to a rate of 1A per thousand in 1939. The num-

Tribal Self -Government At Pine Ridge Reservation, S. D. Oglala-Sioux Council.

Health Is Important To National Defense. One of the many skilled Indians
employed as hospital laboratory assistants is this young Pueblo girl at the
Federal Indian Hospital, Santa Fe, New Mexico. More than ^,500 Indians are
now employed in the Indian Service.

Mural Painting At Oglala Boarding School, Pine Ridge Reservation, S. D.

ber of Indians reported under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government
as of January 1, 1940, was 361,816.

The future of the Indian was never, since the white man came, so
bright as at this hour. For example, there has been a striking resurgence
of Indian arts and crafts. Indian-made rugs, jewelry, baskets, pottery
and other craft objects have taken on a new dignity and prestige under the
program to stimulate the fashioning and sale of high quality, authentic
Indian wares. The sale of tourist knick-knacks, often represented as au-
thentic Indian goods, has in the past done much to lower the standards of
value of native handicrafts. Now, a radically different attitude toward
Indian goods- has been manifested throughout the country.

Native Indian art is advancing because traditional talents are
being carefully fostered by skilled teachers. Indians have won conspic-
uous artistic acclaim through some of their mural decorations, notably on
the walls of the Interior Building in Washington and in public buildings
elsewhere. One Indian boy, aged 17, won the first prize in a nation-wide
competition in which more than 52,00 contestants participated.

Cattle Income More Than Doubled

Indians are developing some remarkable abilities as business-
men. Many tribes, some of them mistakenly considered "backward" and "prim-
itive", have responded surprisingly to new responsibilities given to them
under the Indian Reorganization Act, the Oklahoma Act, the Alaska Act and
the present general policy of giving Indians an increasing measure of self-
government. An outstanding example has been the continuous expansion of
the Indian livestock industry on scores of reservations during the past
seven years. In 1939 f 16,624 Indians owned a total of 262,551 head of cat-
tle. In 1933, 8,627 Indians owned 167,313 head of cattle. The income from
all Indian livestock, including sheep and dairy cattle, showed an increase
from $2,087,000 in 1933 to $5,859,000 in 1939.

Indian judges are administering Indian law on many reservations
with much of the dignity and prestige of the leaders of another day. Indian
tribal courts have been revived, increased and strengthened and the Indians
are rising to the new responsibilities involved.

The passage of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, giving In-
dians preference in the Indian Service staff, increased the number of a
few hundred permanent Indian employees in 1933 to 4-, 682 permanent employees
in 19^0. Indians are being employed in their Indian Service in steadily
increasing numbers. As of June 30, 1940, there were 8 Indian Superinten-
dents, 251 Indians in professional positions, 935 Indians in clerical jobs
and approximately 3,475 Indians in other skilled jobs. Indians in regular
and temporary positions represent over one-half of the entire Indian Service
staff. Many Indians trained to take jobs outside of the Service are not
only being placed in positions, but are making noteworthy successes therein.

North Carolina Pays For Parkway Lands

The pipe of peace was figuratively passed around the offices of
the United States Department of the Interior when a five-year-old contro-
versy over the location of a parkway site through a North Carolina Indian
Reservation ended recently in a "triumph of negotiation."

Determination of the site of the southern terminus of Blue Ridge
National Parkway, the 4.80-mile recreational link, connecting the Great
Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah National Parks, became final when the De-
partment of the Interior conveyed 1,333 acres of Indian lands to the State
of North Carolina and received a check for $4-0,000 to be held in trust for
some 3,400 Eastern Cherokee.

Negotiations, which have been in progress for more than five years
between the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians at Qualla Reservation, the
North Carolina State Highway and Public Works Department, the National Park
Service and the Office of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior,
were consummated with official acceptance by Acting Secretary E. K. Burlew
of the check and his execution of the deed for the parkway lands.

Cherokees Long Independent

A second deed will be made immediately by the State of North Car-
olina to re-transfer the lands to the United States for construction and
administration of the new portion of the parkway by the National Park Serv-
ice.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, with their long tradition
of independence, augmented by present-day governmental policies which en-
courage Indian self-determination, protested against the original site chos-
en for the parkway. Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes and two Interior
bureaus, the Office of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service, have
since been conducting negotiations with the tribe and the North Carolina
Highway Department, which led to eventual success.

The terminal section of America's longest parkway will be a 12-
mile route averaging 1,000 feet wide which will traverse the Qualla Reser-
vation and join State Highway No. 107 near the eastern entrance to the Great
Smokies not far from Bryson City, North Carolina. An earlier proposal of
engineers to route the parkway through Soco Valley, a location a few miles
to the south, did not meet approval of the Cherokee on the ground that it
would remove valuable agricultural land from cultivation. The present scenic
location has little farm value.

Transfer of the Cherokee lands was authorized by Act of Congress
approved June 11, 1940. The Act also authorized the Indians to purchase

with the proceeds of the sale certain nearby lands in the Boundary Tree sec-
tion of Great Smoky Mountains National Park which are sought by the Cherokee
for agricultural use.

The State of North Carolina meanwhile is constructing a road
through Soco Valley which will facilitate ordinary commercial Indian traffic.
The State agreed to build the road at the time the Indians were considering
the proposed legislation to sell the parkway right-of-way across their 65-
year-old reservation.

Blue Ridge National Parkway, which is now under construction, will
be an elongated scenic recreational area extending from the southern terminus
of the famous Skyline Drive, in Shenandoah National Park, through portions
of southwestern Virginia and western North Carolina. Its motorway, which
will be closed to heavy commercial traffic, will afford the recreational
traveler a continuous panorama of the Blue Ridge Mountains on the journey
southward past Mount Mitchell to the Great Smokies. More than 300 miles of
roadway, free of sharp curves and steep grades, were completed or under con-
struction during the year just ended.

Paper Weight Carved From Ivory By An Eskimo Craftsman.

In Co uncil Halls

The following tribal elections have been held in recent weeks:

Constitution or Charter Results Date

Yes No
Constitution and By-Laws of the

Confederated Tribes of the

Goshute Reservation, Utah £2 7 November 9, 194-0.

Constitution and By-Laws and

Charter for the Duckwater

Tribe of Indians of the

Duckwater Reservation, Nevada 36 November 30, 194.0.

Charter for the Eastern Shawnee

Tribe of Indians, Oklahoma .... 60 1 December 13, 1940.

Amendment to the Constitution and

By-Laws of the Flandreau Sahtee

Sioux Tribe, South Dakota 96 10 January 6, 194.1.

The Goshute Indians are a branch of the Ute Tribe occupying a res-
ervation of 108,315 acres on the western border of the State of Utah and
extending into Nevada. The landholdings of this group have been added to
considerably in recent years through the purchase of the Triune Ranch and the
acquiring of certain public domain. The constitution adopted by the Goshute
Indians provides that the Indians of the Skull Valley Reservation, may, if
they choose, join the Goshute organization. The Skull Valley Reservation is
located some 65 miles from Goshute, but due to the absence of water, the
lands, totaling several thousand acres, have been of little practical use.
It is contemplated that the Goshute and Skull Valley Indians will eventually
develop a stock raising economy.

The Duckwater Reservation was purchased with funds provided by
the Indian Reorganization Act and was proclaimed a reservation on November
13, 194-0, for the benefit of the Band of Shoshone Indians residing in the
Duckwater Valley in Nevada. The establishment of this reservation and the
organization of these Indians represents a phase of a continuing effort of
the Indian Office to provide lands and subsistence for the scattered In-
dians of Nevada. In past years these Indians have lived on the outskirts
of the Nevada towns under the most miserable conditions.

The Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma by adopting a charter has
now completed its organization under the Oklahoma Act and is eligible for
credit loans and for assuming the full powers of self-government provided
by the Oklahoma Act.

The Flandreau Amendment election represents a successful effort
after several previous attempts had failed, to bring the Flandreau consti-

tution into accord with their geography. Only a small fraction of the trib-
al membership resides on the Flandreau Reservation, the greater portion
being scattered in other parts of South Dakota and even in Minnesota. Un-
der the constitution as originally drawn, one-third of the voting membership
was required in any meeting of the community council. All the powers of the
tribe remained in the community council. The membership being scattered, it
was practically impossible to hold community council meetings. The amend-
ment reduces the size of the quorum required and it is anticipated that in
the future the tribe will have no difficulty in holding meetings.

An interesting product of tribal self-government is the land
ordinance recently drafted by the Lower Brule Sioux Tribal Council, meet-
ing with Indian Service officials. The conference at which this land code
was developed continued over a period of four days in the midst of one of
the worst cold spells of the present winter. In the course of the four
days, many proposals were offered, some to be discarded, some ultimately
to be incorporated in the final draft. The basic provisions, and in a sense

Some Crow Creek And Lower Brule Indians Examine An Exhibit
In The Museum, Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C.

the most functaental thinking were contributed by the Indian representatives.
They made these three contributions, which are really the heart of the code
as finally adopted:

1. No tribal lands should be assigned which contain artesian
wells or other water facilities, and no lands within a dis-
tance of two miles of such water facilities should be as-
signed for individual use.

2. All timber on lands assigned should remain tribal property
and be subject to the supervision and control of tribal auth-
orities.

3. Supervision and management of individually owned lands might
be transferred to the tribe in exchange for use of equivalent
tribal land. Such lands may, if agreed to by the individual,
be kept permanently under tribal supervision and management.

Roberta Campbell Lawson Dies At Her Tulsa Home

Mrs. Roberta Campbell Lawson, mixed-blood Delaware Indian, Presi-
dent of the General Federation of Women's Clubs from 1935 to 1938, and an
influential person in national affairs, died at her home in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
on December 31, 194-0. Mrs. Lawson was a granddaughter of the Reverend
Charles Journeycake, last chief of the Delaware Indians, who played an im-
portant role in the history of his tribe. A signatory to the important
treaties of 1854, 1861, 1866, and 1867 between the United States and the
Delawares, Reverend Journeycake in later life became an ordained Baptist
minister and preached many sermons in both Delaware and English.

Mrs. Lawson lived as active a life as her historic grandfather
did, her efforts finally bringing her one of the highest honors that can
be won in the field of women's organizations today. Prominent in club work
and musical circles in the Middle West before her election as President
of the Federation, Mrs. Lawson was long a patron of music, and was herself
the author of a little book on Indian melodies. Mrs. Lawson devoted her
time, both in and out of her important office, to national problems. She
initiated a campaign for the abolition of marihuana; urged research and
continuous study of taxation; set up an intensive safety drive in each State
Federation of Women's Clubs; worked for repeal of the section of the Economy
Act prohibiting wives and husbands to hold Civil Service positions concur-
rently; guided the General Federation into membership in the National Con-
sumer-Retailer Council; and constantly advocated a National Academy of Pub-
lic Affairs for the training of personnel in civil and diplomatic Govern-
mental service.

Death Of Two Leaders Is
Real Loss To Pueblos

Pablo Abeita, shown on the right .
who died in December, was known as the
"grand old man" of Isleta Pueblo, N.M.
He was called by Secretary Ickes "the
most distinguished living Indian a-
mong the Southwestern tribes". A no-
tice of Pablo's death and a brief
biographical sketch appeared in the
January issue of Indians At Work.
This photograph was furnished through
the courtesy cf Pablo's son, John Abeita.

Pablo Abeita, Isleta Pueblo

Kutka, Last Of Hopi Bear Clan

Kutka, chief of the Hopi Bear Clan of Walpi,
died December 22 in the hospital at Keams Canyon.
He was 67 years old, and was the last member of
the Hopi Bear Clan at First Mesa, Arizona.

Although Kutka himself only attended school
two years, he was always a strong supporter of the
Federal Indian schools and was an intelligent
leader of the people at First Mesa. When the Soil
and Moisture Conservation program was proposed he
was the first to see its benefits. Despite the
criticism of some Indians, he cooperated whole-
heartedly. His judgment was vindicated the first
year, as his treated farm was the only land in the
area that produced a crop in the drought year of
1939.

As »a ceremonial leader, his passing affects
the entire Mesa. One of the most important cere-
monies cannot take place without him or his suc-
cessor. As he is the last of his clan, it may be
years before his successor is appointed.

'. • '

^ . *■* •

The Minnesota Chippewa have harvested wild
rice in the lake marshes for generations.
They use the rice for food, as well as
market it extensively. This woman is pre-
paring her rice for winnowing at a rice
camp near Tower, Minnesota.

Chairman Of Senate Indian Committee
Discusses Prohibition; Praises Klamath

Settlement of the prohibition question for Indians is purely a
local matter and must be determined by individual reservations, Senator
Elmer Thomas of Oklahoma, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Af-
fairs, said during a recent visit to Klamath Falls, according to an article
in the Klamath News.

"The Congress of the United States is definitely opposed to the
repeal of Indian prohibition," the Senator said, "and would never pass leg-
islation designed to remove present liquor regulations. The problem is one
which must be determined locally.

A native of Oklahoma, a dry state, Senator Thomas said that there
is no likelihood whatsoever of repeal of present regulations on reservations
of his own territory. He said the matter at Klamath would have to be deter-
mined by legislative action within the Klamath Indian Reservation.

Prohibition was one of many problems discussed at an all-day tri-
bal meeting at the general council house at the Agency. The discussion
dealt chiefly with general policies and routine complaints.

Arriving by train from the north, Senator Thomas attended the
meeting and proceeded south by train the same night. He was met by B. G-.
Courtright, reservation superintendent, and by representatives of the Klam-
ath tribe, who drove him to the Agency.

Senator Thomas voiced strong praise for the administration and
general conditions at the Klamath Reservation. Although he has made a tour
of all Indian reservations of the United States, he had not paid a visit to
the Klamath Reservation until this trip.

"Klamath is one of the famous reservations," he said. "It is
famous for its good land, valuable property and good cattle. It is rated
by Indian authorities as one of the best reservations in the nation be-
cause the Indians here are in excellent financial circumstances. They have
money on deposit and large incomes." The Klamath News, Klamath Falls ,
Oregon .

Eastern Cherokees Contribute To Nation's Defense

In the past six months, twenty-seven young Cherokees of the East-
ern Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina have volunteered for military
service, seventeen in the United States Army and ten in the Marine Corps.
Two of these are re-enlistments. The number of volunteers in considered
exceptionally large in proportion to the Reservation's population of about
3,400.

Indians la the News

The annual sale of Indian-made handicraft articles will be held again this
year at the Federal Indian Service offices at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. More than twen-
ty tribes, from Texas and Kansas, as well as Oklahoma, will be represented in the dis-
plays of articles of all sorts and many Indians will demonstrate their skill by making
objects at the sale. Articles on display will include beadwork, woodcarving, pottery,
baskets, hand-made furniture, handspun yarns and clothes, paintings and other Indian
goods. Several Indian artists will be present at the sale to exhibit their works, in-
cluding Acee Blue Eagle, Steven Mopope, Woodrow Crumbo, Spencer Asah, Jack Hokeah and
others. Nominal prices will prevail and every cent taken in will be given to the In-
dian who made the article. Oklahoma City , Oklahoma . The Oklahoman . 12/12/4.0 .

A thirty-foot Indian totem pole, weighing a ton, sent from the Interior De-
partment in Washington, was the first item to arrive for the exhibit of "Indian Art in
the United States", scheduled to open on January 22 at The Museum of Modern Art in New
York City. The exhibit is being organized by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the
Department of the Interior, with the cooperation of universities and museums throughout
the country. The pole was carved by John Wallace, a Haida Indian of Prince of Wales Is-
land, Alaska. It will be on view at the museum for two months and will then tour the
country. New York City . New York . The Herald Tribune . 12/17/40 .

Indians of Jemez Pueblo have sought a deferred selective service status for
young braves studying to be medicine men, who are the priests of their native religion
and are considered essential to the well-being of the Pueblo. It is contended that
these young Indians are theological students and, therefore, can be classed in a de-
ferred draft status. Washington , D. C. The Star . 12/19/40 .

A new nationality code enacted by the present Congress will become effective
early in 1941. Among its specific provisions is one making it possible for American
Indians born in Canada, Mexico, or some other part of the Western Hemisphere outside
the United States, to become naturalized. Before this, only white persons and persons
of African ancestry were eligible for naturalization. Tacoma, Washington . The News-
Tribune . 12/16/40 .

Barring changes in the method of allocation, Arizona will get another repre-
sentative in Congress by 1943, according to 194-0 census figures. Arizona's chances of
getting an additional representative were made more secure by a ruling of Secretary of
Commerce Jesse Jones that Indians should be counted in figuring Congressional re-appor-
tionment because they pay Federal taxes. Previously they have been eliminated under a
State constitutional provision barring the counting of Indians, as not taxable by lo-
cal authorities. Phoenix . Arizona . The Republic . 12/4/40 .

Indians in the uniform of the United States Army are nothing new. They have
fought with us in all our wars. In groups and individually many Indians went across
seas with our expeditionary forces in the World War and made group and individual rec-
ords of high valor. That they should now come forward in this era of preparedness
against war is to be expected. All but eight or ten of the eighty-eight men in Com-
pany B, 16 3rd Infantry, a Montana regiment now in training, are Sioux Indians led by a
Sioux captain. St. Louis . Missouri . The Globe -Democrat . 1/1/41 .

With the expenditure of a nominal sum by the Indian Service, preparations are
almost completed for the making of necessary repairs by Indian CCC workers to the &L-
year-old buildingf at old Fort Siracoe in Washington. Much of the history of this old
Army post, begun in 1856 and completed in 1858, has been lost, but bit by bit is being
recovered, thanks to research workers and descendants of Army people who knew the Fort
as home for a brief span when the West was being won. Eventually restored to a sem-
blance of its original appearance, with the replacing of the log barracks and other
buildings, the Fort will become one of the most attractive historical spots in the
State, if not the Northwest. Yakima, Washington . Yakima Morning Herald . 12/26A0.

Conservationists and friends of the American Indian are watching with in-
tense interest the cooperative efforts of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the United
States Fish and Wildlife Service to restore the productivity of their lands. Erosion,
game slaughter, lumbering and over-fishing had brought many of the reservation lands to
the verge of desert waste when the Federal bureaus stepped in to begin their restora-
tion work. Today erosion is being checked, trees planted, beaver and buffalo intro-
duced where they will thrive; dams are being erected and irrigation ditches dug; ponds,
lakes and streams are being restocked with fish, and in some areas, suitable fur -bear-
ing animals are being encouraged. It is believed that with only a little assistance
and advice, the Indians themselves will be able to restore their lands to a condition
that will support a considerably larger Indian population than at present. The com-
bined acreage of the reservations is said to equal the area of all the New England
states and a part of New York. Growth of the Indian population in the United States
already promises to become a decided problem within a decade or two, which makes the
efforts at restoration and conservation particularly timely. Rochester. New York . The
Democrat & Chronicle . 1/5/1+1 .

Here Is A Book Of Practical Value

Acculturation in Seven American Indian Tribes . Ralph Linton, Editor. Ap-
pleton-Century, 19A0.

The customs and habits of the Indians have engaged the attention of writers
and students ever since the first whites landed on the American poasts, but it has
been only in comparatively recent times that anthropologists have studied the culture
change that has come about through contact with white people. The studies in "Accul-
turation in Seven American Tribes" have been written by seven former graduate students
of the Department of Anthropology of Columbia University for their doctorates. They
take up the Puyallup, Shoshoni of Western Shoshone Reservation, the Southern Ute, the
Northern Arapaho, the Fox of Iowa, San Ildefonso Pueblo and the Alkatcho Carrier of
British Columbia, Canada. Professor Linton has made editorial comments on each study
and added three chapters of theoretical nature on the subject of acculturation and the
processes of culture change.

Useful to Administrators

This book will be a welcome contribution to Indian administrators and offi-
cials, regardless of whether or not they deal with the particular Indian tribes de-
scribed. Each study gives in good perspective the aboriginal culture and the history
of white relations for the problems confronting the Indian Service today. There is
perhaps more history than analysis of the resulting changes. The study of the Arapaho
is an exception, for it contains excellent insight into the sociological and personal-
ity problems of this Wyoming tribe. It is interesting to note also the use of the
Government survey of the Technical Cooperation of Bureau of Indian Affairs Unit in
this scientific work.

Readers will find in the study of the Arapaho, explanation to phenomena
which are criticized both on and off the reservations by such stock phrases as "The
Indians won't accept opportunities," "The Indians won't keep up property," "So many
of our school children just go back to the blanket. " The explanations will give some
insight into causes that must be understood in school training, as well as give sym-
pathetic appreciation of the position of the Indian in his own society.

Very pertinent information of subjects of especial interest to Indian Serv-
ice members exists in the other studies. For example, the reasons for the spread of
the Peyote Cult; how it functions, its importance to the Indian for psychological
reasons as well as religious, and its relation to early Indian religion; the difference
in the concepts of white medicine with its physical and physiological bases, and Indian
medicine with its supernatural basis that exerts so much conflict; the effect of sudden
wealth on a tribe, such as the Puyallup (although one cannot agree with the editorial
comment that Puyallup were "killed with kindness"); the ways and values of family co-
operation that exist today, which should be supported rather than ignored or destroyed
by the common practice of administering to Indian individuals as complete social or
economic units; etc.

It is to be regretted, in this connection, that more attention was not paid
in some studies to the detailed function, controls and efforts, of the Government Serv-
ice, for the Indian Service has been for some decades the most active agent in intro-
ducing phases of white culture and furthering the process of acculturation.

Finally, the reviewer wishes to bring this book to the attention of Indian
school teachers, especially teachers of social science, who have found a very lim-
ited amount of material dealing with Indians and Indian problems. By Gordon Macgregor.
Associate Supervisor Indian Education ( Anthropology ) .

A Book By The "Chief Story Teller"

Indians of Yesterday ., by Marion E. Gridley, illustrated by Lone Wolf. (Spon-
sored by the Indian Council Fire, and published by M. A. Donohue & Company, Chicago
and New York, 1940. )

Miss Gridley is Chief Story Teller of the Indian Council Fire and her pur-
pose here is to tell a story. It is an excellent book for younger readers, brief, con-
crete and easy to read. The full-page reproductions of paintings by Lone Wolf, Indian
painter, are portrayals of the vigorous life of his people and the casual line drawings
which appear on the margins of every page are worth careful study, for they illustrate
the contents engagingly.

Miss Gridley lists five geographical and cultural groups: The Woodland In-
dians in the Northeast; the Plains Indians; the Indians of the Southeast; the tribes
of the Southwest; and those of the North Pacific Coast. Wherever he lived, the Indian
adapted himself to his surroundings. He did not mold the countryside to suit his pur-
poses, but used to its fullest advantage everything that he found. Although his life
was simple compared to modern life, it was rich and satisfying, and he was part of the
land on which he lived.

A chapter is devoted to each of the five cultural divisions, and we are told
in interesting detail of the customs of each - their legends, moral codes, religious
ceremonies, recreations, housing and habits of dress and eating.

In the Northeast, the Woodland Indian invented the canoe and the snowshoe.
A light craft was necessary because parts of the forest streams were impassable and
sometimes a single person had to carry the canoe overland. Walking through the deep
snowdrifts in winter was slow and tiring, but snowshoes made it possible for the h un-
healing Horses" — Mural by Woodrow Crumbo, Potawatomi- Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C.

MM*

• %.

Dancers At Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.

ter to follow game through the woods with comparative ease. The Woodland Indian dress-
ed in the skins of deer, rabbits, and bears. The chief article of his diet, was corn,
and Miss Gridley's description of his way of roasting it makes one's mouth water. Be-
cause he lived in woodland country, the Northeast Indian built his house of wood. Some
were communal buildings with "apartments" for as many as ten families.

The Indians of the Plains first lived in round earth lodges. Leaving the
women and children to care for the homes and gardens, the men would roam far away in
pursuit of the buffalo. At harvest time, they would return to their families. But
the Spaniards brought horses, and some of the horses ran away to the Plains. "Wander-
horse met wandering Indian," and the Plains Indian became mobile. He abandoned 2
his earth lodges and he and his family then lived only in skin houses which could be
folded up and moved from place to place with the help of the new beast of burden.

The buffalo was a good provider. The Plains Indian used the buffalo skin
for clothing, for boats and cooking utensils. He used the flesh for food; the horns
and bones for weapon points, tools, implements and glue; the hair for weaving. The
buffalo could not have complained of a wasted life!

There was cane-brake in the Southeast. For the Indians of this part of the
country, cane made baskets, shields, armor, and that useful weapon, the blowgun. Clams
and oysters were a staple food. The Indians of the Southeast found pearls in large
numbers, but valued them for beauty alone and used them as decorations for ceremonial
costumes until the Spaniards came.

In the deserts of the Southwest lived the Apaches, Navajos, Papagos, Pimas,
Pueblos, and Utes. These people built enduring homes of stones plastered with clay or
adobe, first in the valley and later, for safety, in the cliffs. They irrigated their
desert gardens, and in their religious ceremonies prayed for rain. Surrounded by the
brilliant colors of the desert, they developed a vivid native art.

The Northwest Indians lived a rugged life. ' They became master carvers and
built sturdy sea canoes from which they could attack the mighty whale with their har-
poons. Their food was mainly the plentiful salmon of the northwest rivers, and the
wild berries of the forest.

This book should be stimulating extra reading for lower-school students of
North American history and geography.

To Answer Your Questions

Indians of the United States , by Clark Wissler, Curator of Anthropology of
the American Museum of Natural History. Illustrated. Doubleday, Doran. 194.0. 306
pp. $3.75.

The first book in a science series designed for general readers and sponsored
by the American Museum of Natural History, its author needs no introduction to Indian
Service people and students of the Indian.

An earlier book, "The American Indian", has made Clark Wissler a world author-
ity on the subject. He also wrote "Man and Culture" and "Indian Cavalcade."

His latest book is written for the layman, Mr. Wissler says, with the hope of
clearing up some common misunderstandings about the natives of our country. It should
provide better school reading than his more technical "The American Indian", and is es-
pecially recommended to Indian Service teachers for this reason. A brief appendix
lists questions frequently asked by visitors at the Natural History Museum and the
answers which are made to them. The book is indexed.

"Indians of the United States" denotes an artificial boundary. Actually Mr.
Wissler includes a few Canadian Indians in the book. The first part is devoted to "The
Indian in Prehistoric America", his origin, his way of life as an aboriginal pioneer,
and his gradual development of more complicated living patterns before the white man's
arrival. The Stone Boilers, the Farmers, the Potters, and the Builders are described
in detail.

In the second part of his book, Mr. Wissler groups the tribes according to
language similarities into "The Great Indian Families." In using the language grouping
instead of cultural grouping, Mr. Wissler has perhaps clarified the relations of the
tribes for many of us. He then outlines the customs of each group, as determined by the
family's geographical location and its relations with other tribes and with the whites.

The last portion of his book, "Indian Life in General", touches briefly on In-
dian-white relations; intermarriage; and the effects on the Indian of the white man's
gifts of horses, guns, and liquor. The "mystery of the Indian mind" is really no mys-
tery at all, Mr. Wissler points out, but only an incomplete understanding on the part
of the white man.

The final chapter is called "Did the Indian Live in Vain?" Mr. Wissler' s
answer is no: "...The life of the Indian is intermeshed with the American frontier ....
Nor has he been merely the villain in the piece, though his methods were at times shock-
ing enough, rather he was a friendly competitor with whom our ancestors were sometimes
at war ... The Indian now lives with us in peace; his numbers are increasing and inter-
marriage with whites is gradually narrowing down the racial cleavage ... The Indian of
the past occupied the United States thousands of years before our ancestors knew there
was such a country, acquired a store of knowledge as to the kind of life necessary to
live in this country, domesticated the most promising of its wild plants, and thus, by
experience, knowledge and achievement laid an economic foundation good enough for the
building of these United States, so it cannot be denied that he has an important place
in our history."

The Younger Generation Comes Through

By Michael Harrison,
Sacramento California Agency.

It was six o'clock in the evening and Tom Pike, the manager of the Manchester
Rancheria Community Dairy Enterprise, was worried. Not only was it six o'clock in the
evening, but Tom Pike was six miles away from the dairy bam and there were sure to be
twenty-six cows waiting in the corral that were supposed to have been fed and mi 1 k e d
at 4:30.

Tom Pike had attended the regular semi-annual meeting of the Manchester
Rancheria Community Council and the meeting didn't adjourn until 6:00 p.m. He had to
wait until the meeting was over before he could get back to his cows. Soon after the
meeting was adjourned, he got into a car and was driven back to the ranch. All the
way over, Tom Pike fretted about his cows. He was interested in his cows and he was
equally interested in the affairs of the Community Council.

As the car swung around the brow of the hill on the ranch and Tom could see
a light in the barn, he heaved a vast sigh of relief and said, "Well, I don't have to
worry any more. My assistant is on the job all right."

Questioning revealed that his "assistant" was his granddaughter, Eva Pike,
age 13, and in the 7th grade at the Point Arena Grammar School, and doing well. Eva
first learned to milk a cow when she was 8. Tom had a milk cow of his own at that
time and Eva. being the favorite granddaughter followed Tom wherever he went and when
he went to milk his cow, Eva was right there and it was only natural that in course of
time, she too, would learn the trade. Every chance Eva got to milk that one, lone cow,
she took, and when grandfather was made manager of the Dairy Enterprise, with lots of
cows to milk, Eva was in seventh heaven. Whenever the regular assistant was absent,
Eva pitched right in and did his milking for him. Of course, this was only at the
evening milking - little girls of 13 years shouldn't be up at 5:30 in the morning to
milk cows.

Pretty soon Tom, appreciating the fact that Eva was "making a hand", put her
on regularly and since September she has been milking every evening and is paid 25
cents a day.

But to get back to this particular night - when 4:30 came and Tom did not
arrive, Eva knew that the cows had to be driven into the milking barn, fastened in
their stanchions, fed and milked - and that is exactly what she did. When Tom finally
got to the bam, little Eva had milked 14. cows and Reggie White had milked eight, leav-
ing but four cows that had just come in fresh and were hard to milk, for Tom to finish
up on.

Reggie who is 15, and a freshman at the Point Arena Union High School, says
he wants to study agriculture; Eva says she would rather milk cows than play with dolls
and when she grows up wants to be a stenographer in the Indian Service. (Personnel
Officers please note . )

We hear a lot these days about how much the world will depend on the younger
generation - their initiative and drive. If they perform as Eva and Reggie did in an
emergency, the future is safe.

NAVAJOS DON'T LIKE BLONDES

Among topics discussed by the Navajo Tribal Council at a recent meeting,
was the subject of "outsiders" coming onto the Navajo Reservation. During the dis-
cussion one of the members rose and said: "I want to state that no blonde-haired people
and blue-eyed people should be adopted into the Navajo Reservation. Only people with
black hair and brown complexions should be here on the reservation. "

Indian Service Publications

And Other Items Of Information

PERIODICALS

"Indians At Work", published monthly.

"Indian Education", twice monthly.

"Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs"

"Statistical Supplement to the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs"

"Summary of Monthly Extension Activities"

PAMPHLETS AND MIMEOGRAPHED MEMORANDA ISSUED ON REQUEST

"Conservation — The Resources We Guard"

119 releases covering current events 1937 to 194-0 inclusive.

"Cliff Dwellings" "Arrowheads"

"Mounds and Mound Builders" "Indian Treaties"

"Implements, Tools and Utensils" "Pottery"

"Birdseye View of Indian Policy, Historic and Contemporary"

"Location of Principal Tribes by State and Agency"

"Agencies Under the Jurisdiction of the Office of Indian Affairs by Reservation and

County"
"Mobilization of the Indian Service and Indian Resources for National Defense"
"America's Handling of its Indigenous Indian Minority"
"General Information, The Department of the interior"
Short Histories of Indian Tribes.
Bibliographies of Some Tribes.

Lists of Indians Who Have At Some Time Inhabited the Different States.
"Territorial Schools in Alaska"

"Report of the Conservation Advisory Committee for the Navajo Reservation"
"Indians Are Not Supported by Government"
"The Policy of the Office of Indian Affairs on Religious Liberty Among Indians"

REPRINTS OF INDIAN ARTICLES FROM MAGAZINES AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS

"Influencing The Health Practices Of Primitive People", by Edna A. Gerken. ( Medical

Woman ' s Journal . )
"Indians Of The United States", by Marion Paine Stevens. ( The Instructor . )
"A New Deal for the American Indian", by Harold Ward. ( Travel Magazine . )
"A New Day For The Red Indians, No Longer A Vanishing Race", by Floyd W. LaRouche.

( The London Times . United States Number.)
"Public Health Nursing Among The Indians", by Rosalie I. Peterson. (Public Health

Nursing . )
"Disease and the Indian", by Dr. J. G. Townsend. ( The Scientific Monthly .)
S. 364.5 - Wheeler-Howard Act. (Public No. 383 - 73rd Congress.)
"Indian Land Problems and Policies." Report of the Land Planning Committee of the

National Resources Board.
"Indian Land Tenure, Economic Status and Population Trends, Part X - 1935."
"Drink and the Indians" ( The Voice Magazine . )

STUDIES MADE FROM TIME TO TIME BY GROUPS OUTSIDE THE INDIAN SERVICE

"Educational Service for Indians", by Lloyd E. Blauch for the Advisory Committee on
Education.

"New Day For The Indians", by Prof. Jay B. Nash of New York University; Mr. Oliver La
Farge, President of the American Association on Indian Affairs; and W. Carson
Ryan, Carnegie Foundation. This booklet was sponsored by 56 authorities on In-
dians outside the Government.

"The Navajo Indian Problem", sponsored by the Phelps-Stokes Foundation.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES

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